STATE EXAMS COMMISSION:SATURDAY'S RESCHEDULED Leaving Cert exam ran smoothly without any operational difficulty, the State Exams Commission (SEC) said yesterday.

The back-up paper presented to students was broadly similar to that mistakenly leaked at a Drogheda, Co Louth, school. Most students and teachers appeared pleased and relieved with the paper. For the SEC, the lack of controversy about the back-up paper is good news and means it can move on from last week’s events.

The SEC is expected to finalise a report ordered by Minister for Education Batt O’Keeffe into the leak at St Oliver’s Community College this week. The superintendent responsible for distributing Paper 2 instead of Paper 1 has been suspended. The SEC had said the leak left it with no option but to reschedule English Paper 2 to Saturday morning.

There is widespread sympathy across the education sector for the superintendent in question, a retired teacher in his late 60s. One senior figure said: “Yes, this man made a mistake and yes the SEC should have been alerted quickly. But this teacher had no idea that the mistake would spread like a bushfire on Twitter and the like. He made a genuine mistake and he should not be pilloried.”

The Drogheda leak was the first major embarrassment for the SEC, which appears confident there will be no recurrence.